“A melon forced off its vine is not sweet.”
Outside in the lush green lawn, stood a beautiful young woman who was picking ripen tangerines in preparation for the New Years festivities. The warm sun melting the day old snow signified that spring was near. Tangerines denoted good fortune and she meticulously searched for the perfect bunch making sure that none were damaged in any way. Her delicate grip neither punctured nor bruised the plumped, juicy fruit as she plucked it off the branches one by one. Suddenly, gusts of wind momentarily interfered with her concentration as it blew her perfectly aligned straight hair into her eyes.
“Mei Yee, come in!” shouted her mother.
Alarmed, Mei Yee placed the remaining five tangerines in her woven basket and hastily gathered her belongings. With her left hand tucking loose strands of jet black hair behind her ear and her other arm wrapped around the basket, she made her way home. Her tightly bound feet gave the illusion that she was gracing over the grass, but prevented her from reaching the door before her name was called again.
“Mei Yee, where are you? Is that you? Come to the front there is someone here to see you.”
At that moment, Mei Yee placed the basket to the side and took a deep breath before entering the next room. She closed her eyes for a moment envisioning Wei, the young man from the next village whom she fell in love with last spring. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since his departure in autumn, when Emperor Qin Shi Huang offered young men from all provinces to work on the Great Wall. Wei’s background greatly contrasted with Mei Yee’s. Wei’s father died near the Yellow River a while back in battle between warring states. Without any real source of income, Wei assumed the position as head of his family and was put to work in various jobs around his village’s marketplace. Mei Yee comes from an affluent background where everything was done for her by personal servants. However, she found an admirable quality in Wei, unmatched by any man she’s ever known. Unlike many of her past suitors, he assumed responsibility; many of the other men relied on their parents for financial stability. Most of all, Wei didn’t dwell on his unfortunate past and instead used his experiences as motivation. When the position to work for the emperor on the Great Wall surfaced, Wei took advantage of this opportunity to earn his pay. Before he left, Wei promised to come back for Mei Yee soon when he had enough money to support the two of them. Mei Yee finally opened her eyes and went into the next room.
A stout figure replaced the expected slender silhouette Mei Yee expected to find. The servant came, on behalf of the Tong family, bearing gifts of tea and Phoenix-shaped cakes; on the bamboo end table near her parents, laid dragon-shaped cakes. Mei Yee’s stomach plunged. She knew that the exchange of these cakes signified a marriage proposal. Fighting back the tears, she struggled against showing her true feelings. Her parents explained that the arrangement was made a while back. She was to be married to a man, who wasn’t Wei, twice her age. They reassured her that he comes from an honorable background and is able to afford her luxurious lifestyle. Mei Yee never disobeyed her parents in any way, but she couldn’t see herself marrying someone she would never love. She could care less about maintaining her lifestyle. If only her parents would allow her to marry Wei. If only they knew.
Later in the evening, Mei Yee approached her parents in their bedroom. She pleaded with them not to proceed with the wedding. Her parents, disappointed, expressed how dishonorable it would be to the family to back down from a process so far along and how disrespectful it was of her to want to go against their wishes. Stifled by this response, she knew in her heart that there was nothing her power to prevent the wedding. For a few days Mei Yee trapped herself in her room crying herself to sleep and refusing any source of nourishment.
In a deep slumber, Mei Yee saw visions of Wei on her window sill. “I’m coming home, Mei Yee. Don’t worry about me,” he said. As her arm reached for him, he slowly faded into the twilight.
Within the next couple of weeks, news emerged across the province about a collapse during the construction of a portion of the Wall. There were no survivors. Mei Yee still hadn’t heard back from Wei and it was still unclear if he was a victim. Mei Yee was conflicted by the image she saw in her dream that night; she had reason to believe that Wei was still alive. However, as each day passed, and the day of the wedding ceremony approaching, Wei’s return wasn’t promising.
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“Now open your eyes,” her mother exclaimed gleefully as Mei Yee glanced in the mirror. Her vibrant red, wedding gown dragged on her once voluptuous body. Her hair pulled back revealing her outlined expressionless eyes and her full, red luscious lips. “This was it,” she huffed under breath. She was about to forfeit her life to a man she’d never met until now. She placed her hand on her chest, feeling her heart contracting. The sun was setting and the ceremony was about to commence in a few minutes. Her feelings of loneliness were too overpowering that she couldn’t restrain herself anymore. She dashed out to the back yard and continued running. The pins failed to fulfill their purpose, and her hair flowed freely with the wind. Looking back would only remind her of an inevitable future. Even though her parents rushed her to marriage, they couldn’t force her to love her husband. Her heart was with Wei, wherever he was.
Mei Yee’s backyard extended to an endless forest. As she faded into the background, so did her limitations. She was no longer confined by someone else; not by her parents or a stranger.
No one had heard or seen Mei Yee since that day. Some say that they’ve spotted her in the Szechuan province and others claims she was making a living in Peking selling fish at a local market, hoping to find Wei nearby. However, wherever she ended up, she found solace in her new found freedom.
